Simargl

Simargl (also Sěmargl, Semargl) or Sěm and Rgel is an East Slavic god or gods often depicted as a winged dog,^[1] mentioned in two sources. The origin and etymology of this/these figure(s) is the subject of considerable debate. The dominant view is to interpret Simargl as a single deity who was borrowed from the Iranian Simurgh. However, this view is criticized, and some researchers propose that the existence of two deities, Sěm and Rgel, should be recognized.

The first source that mentions Simargl is Primary Chronicle, which describes how Vladimir the Great erected statues to Slavic gods in 980:

And Vladimir began to reign alone in Kyiv. And he placed idols on the hill outside the palace: a Perun in wood with a silver head and a gold moustache, and Khors and Dazhbog and Stribog and Simargl and Mokosh. And they offered sacrifices and called them gods, and they took their sons and daughters to them and sacrificed them to the devils. And they profaned the earth with their sacrifices, and Rus’ and that hill were profaned by blood. But God the merciful, who does not wish the death of sinners, on that hill stands today the church of Saint Vasilij, as we will relate later.^[2]

— Primary Chronicle

In a later text from the second half of the 12th century, Sermon by One Who Loves Christ, Simargl is mentioned as two separate deities, Sěm and Rgel:

[...] being unable to bear Christians who live a double faith and believe in Perun and Khors, Mokosh, Sim and Rgl and in the Vily [...]^[3]

— Sermon by One Who Loves Christ

The Sermon further states: „Therefore, Christians must not hold demonic festivities, meaning dancing, music and profane songs, and offerings to the idols, who with fire under the fields of sheaves pray to the Vily, to Mokosh, and Sim and Rgl, to Perun, Rod, the Rozhanitsy and all the like.”^[4]

In copies of Primary Chronicle, the theonym is written (in the genitive) as Simarĭgla (Laurentian Codex), Sěmarĭgla (Hypatian Codex) and Semarĭgla (Radziwiłł Chronicle).^[5] In the Sermon as two separate theonyms: Sima, Rĭgla (genitive) and Sim(o)u, Rĭgl(o)u (dative).^[6]

In 1841, Potr Preys [ru] proposed that Sim and Rgel be considered characters corresponding, respectively, to the Old Testament Asima and Nergal.^[7] This view was supported by Viljo Mansikka.^[8] Alexander Famitsin, on the other hand, concluded that Simargl was a corrupted notation that was originally intended to read Sim Yaryl.^[9] Vyacheslav Ivanov and Vladimir Toporov originally concluded that the theonym originally sounded *Sedmor(o)-golvъ and meant "seven-headed".^[10]

Since 1933, Simargl has been considered an Iranian loanword. It was first proposed^[11] by Kamilla Trever, a Russian historian and orientalist, according to whom the source word for Simargl was supposed to be Simurgh – a winged creature with a dog's head that was a protector of plants.^[12] The derivation of Simargl from Simurgh is now the dominant view in scholarship.^[13][6] The source of the borrowing was to be Persian Simurg, Middle Persian Sēnmurw, Avestan saēna-marga or Scythian-Sarmatian Sēnmary.^[6]

Alleged depictions of Semargl according to Rybakov on a bracelet from Tver^[14]

Boris Rybakov was an ardent supporter of the Trever theory; he rejected the division of Simargl into two deities or the possibility of typos.^[15] Based on the relationship between Simargl and Simgur, he concluded that Simargl was the god of seeds, sprouts and roots of plants, the protector of shoots and greens, the intermediary between the highest gods of heaven and earth.^[16] Simargl was supposed to be a deity of a lower order. He was depicted as a winged dog with fangs and claws,^[15] and his images were to be found on various objects, such as bracelets.^[17] According to Rybakov, Simargl was identical to Pereplut (often referring to them as Simargl-Pereplut^[18]) and was later replaced by him.^[19] The view is supported by a number of scholars including Alexander Gieysztor^[20] eventually also Ivanov and Toporov and many others.^[13]

Mikhail Vasilyev admits that there are some linguistic difficulties in deriving Simargl from Simurgh, but states that it is plausible and accepts the theory, at least until a better one is discovered. However, he questioned Rybakov's interpretation seeing Simargl as a plant god: there are no Iranian or Indian sources confirming that Simurgh was the protector of plants, so Simargl could not have inherited this competence. However, he points out that the common Indo-Iranian characteristic of Simurgh was to mediate between worlds, and that at a later stage, in Eastern Iranian mythology, he was the protector of humans, especially human clusters, and that this may have determined his introduction into the Vladimir's pantheon. He also points out that Simurgh in the form of a dog-bird originated in (post)Sasanian Iran and from there spread to the space between the Atlantic and Siberia. However, after the Islamization of Iran, Simurgh lost its religious significance and became an ornamental motif. According to him, there is no evidence that among the eastern Iranians, from whom the Slavs were supposed to have taken him over, Simurgh was depicted with a dog's head, and this means that he must have had an original appearance, i.e. be depicted as a large, predatory bird, and consequently, Simargl could not have been a dog-bird. As a result, he also accuses Rybakov of arbitrarily concluding that winged dogs in East Slavic art are depictions of Simargl, while an analysis of the oldest depictions of this type (from the 10th century onward) suggests that they may be Old Russian reflections of Western European dragons of the romanesqe type.^[13]

The relationship between Simargl and Simurgh has also been criticized on linguistic grounds: the vowels^[6] and the last consonant ([l]) do not fit.^[6][21] This has led to at least a dozen other proposals.^[6] Martin Pukanec proposed to read the second part of the theonym as Proto-Slavic *orьlъ "eagle". Here he mentions the Latvian cognate ērglis, containing -g-. According to him, this is to prove that -g- was originally in the Balto-Slavic words for eagle, but fell out due to taboo. The Slavs were thus supposed to have borrowed Simurgh as *Sim-orьglъ "eagle Sim" and evolved into *Simo-orьglъ > *Simōrьglъ > *Simarьglъ.^[22] This etymology, however, cannot be accepted because Latvian ērglis is a late form and derives from the earlier *ereľis < *erlis and does not correspond to the original forms.^[6]

Due to the above mentioned problems, some scholars concluded that Simargl were two separate deities: Sim/Sem/Sěm and Rgel/Rgěl, and it was for them that etymology was sought. Alexander Brückner stated that in the Primary Chronicle the conjunction is also not found between Khors and Dazhbog, and these are still separate theonyms, therefore Simargl should also be divided into two words.^[23] According to Martin Pitro and Petr Vokáč, if one considers the existence of two deities instead of one, it is possible that Sěm and Rgel were divine twins, the Slavic counterparts of the Dioskuri.^[24]